Border talks with the U.S. moving along achingly slowly

There are certain “truisms” about Canada that become deeply entrenched in the U.S., particularly during election season in the American capital.

None are necessarily fair, but once let out of the box, any veteran of the bilateral wars will tell you how difficult it is to stuff them back in.

The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists came across the Canadian border. We are soft on security. We give out visas like gum drops. Our border is “porous.”

Our envoys have taken to the cable news airwaves to refute the misinformation, or dealt with them one at a time in a diplomatic game of whack-a-mole, putting down one falsehood as another pops up.

The next perception straining at that box: Canada is weak on Chinese espionage.

“If Canada is seen to be playing in the sandbox with the Chinese on the business front, it can turn into the view that we are the soft underbelly of the North American continent and could prove to be another vulnerability in the Canada-U.S. relations,” says Paul Frazer, a former Canadian diplomat who now lobbies for Canadian interests south of the border.

While it is easy for Canadians to reject U.S. bids to caricature this nation, the reality is that, when the two nations are sputtering along on a huge set of negotiations to streamline the 49th parallel while safeguarding security, such perceptions weigh heavily.

In the U.S., much of the China-bashing could be election year muscle flexing, but a congressional report released last week warning that two Chinese telecoms are a threat to U.S. national security has Canadian repercussions.

One of the companies, Huawei Technologies Ltd., already has a strong foothold in Canada.

U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has warned of “a cyber Pearl Harbor.” As he contemplates the takeover of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. by a state-owned Chinese company, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has acknowledged there is a “national security dimension” to Canada-China relations.

It is something he takes “very seriously,” Harper said.

The Beyond the Border pact being negotiated by Ottawa and Washington has already been slowed by election year politics.

Birgit Matthiessen, senior adviser for government relations to the president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association, knows the sensitivity of bilateral files during an election year.

Anything to do with border security can jump out during the campaign and bite a candidate, so caution is understandable, she says.

But she is concerned there is no checklist being released by either side on where they are in the talks.

The information shortfall, with the deadlines that have come and gone, cannot all be attributable to electioneering, she believes.

There has been some limited progress.

Beginning next month, trusted Canadian travellers will be eligible for expedited security screening at 27 U.S. airports.

A pilot program has begun at four land crossings in which the two countries will share data collected from third-country nationals.

The two countries, under another pilot program, are now jointly inspecting foreign flagged vessels crossing the international border on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Last month, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met to discuss making redress easier for those wrongly barred from flights under Do Not Fly provisions.

Last Friday, Toews announced that the Shiprider Program, in which maritime law enforcement vessels jointly staffed by Canadian and American officers will ride back and forth across the border, will begin in British Columbia and Ontario.

But a request for anything further was answered by Toews’ office merely pointing back to a departmental website and a promise of an annual report by the end of this year.

The Beyond the Border program was announced with much fanfare between Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama last year, with a formal, photo-op ceremony deemed a necessity from the Canadian side.

Since then, it has been shrouded in secrecy, negotiated in the weeds reserved for regulatory programs.

Should Republican Mitt Romney win the U.S. presidency Nov. 6, the program would at very least be delayed as personnel comes and goes and priorities are redefined.

Every presidential candidate, regardless of the party, wants to talk tough on border security post-Sept. 11; the Republicans want to regain their tough-on-security mantle.

The Mexican border is the default border to be discussed during election years, largely because of the huge Latino vote that must be courted. A Romney victory would not lead to an all-out assault on Beyond the Border. But it could lead to a death of quiet neglect.

Tim Harper is a news services columnist who writes on national affairs.